Change at Surrey Board of Trade page 3
Surrey Eagles have a new president page 16
Tuesday June 11, 2013
Serving Surrey and North Delta www.surreyleader.com
Huge coastal sequoia tree is at the site of a planned development at 133 Street and 104 Avenue
Rallying to save a
by Kevin Diakiw
GIANT
PHOTO SUBMITTED
A GIANT redwood tree is slated to come down in North Surrey as a developer plans to build a housing complex there. A group of area residents are trying to save the coastal sequoia, a threatened species of tree, which towers hundreds of feet over a property on the southwest corner of 133 Street and 104 Avenue. To passing traffic, the tree is all but invisible. But walk around a corner, and residents say it takes your breath away. Ed MacInnis said he saw it for the first time on Wednesday night. “It is outstanding. You just don’t realize until you come around the corner just how big it is,” MacInnis said. “I didn’t even know a tree like that existed in Surrey.” City staff say they received a plan to build a four- to six-storey multi-family midrise on the property in 2010. Staff say the application, submitted by Lin’s Holdings, was scant on detail and hasn’t advanced any further since the application was received. Council has not seen the plans yet, and nothing yet has been determined about the future of the tree.
North Surrey residents embrace the massive trunk of a sequoia tree near 133 Street and 104 Avenue.
See HAYNE / Page 4
New Surrey MLAs named to cabinet City now has trio of B.C. ministers: Virk, Fassbender and Cadieux
by Tom Fletcher PREMIER CHRISTY Clark unveiled her new
Amrik Virk: Minister of Advanced Education
cabinet at an outdoor ceremony in downtown Vancouver Friday, keeping veterans in some key roles and bringing in newcomers elected in the B.C. Liberals’ upset election win – including Surrey’s rookie MLAs Amrik Virk and Peter Fassbender. Fassbender, Langley City’s outgoing mayor and Surrey-Fleetwood MLA, moves
into the hot seat as education minister. His first task is to work on Clark’s goal of reaching a long-term contract settlement with B.C. teachers. Newcomer Virk, elected in SurreyTynehead, takes over as advanced education minister. Stephanie Cadieux, re-elected as MLA in Surrey-Cloverdale, stays as children and family development minister. In total, Clark appointed 19 ministers,
adding two new ministries. Fort LangleyAldergrove MLA Rich Coleman takes over the new ministry of natural gas development, retaining responsibilities as deputy premier and housing minister. Newly elected Richmond-Centre MLA Teresa Wat takes on a new ministry of international trade, including B.C.’s Asia-Pacific strategy and multiculturalism.
Editorial 6 Letters 7 Sports 16 Classifieds 20
15thnual An
rday th u t a S 15 6:00 pm e n Ju 0 am to 11:0
See MLAs / Page 3
Peter Fassbender: Minister of Education
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See inside for the 15th Annual Surrey Fest pull-out section
Central City Plaza & North Surrey Rec Centre